A Monumental History of the Dawat
Among the literary treasures of the Tayyibi-Bohra tradition, few works rival the scope and authority of the Uyun al-Akhbar wa-Funun al-Athar (عُيُونُ الأَخْبَار — “The Choicest Reports and the Finest Traditions,” sometimes rendered “The Springs of History”). Composed in seven books, it is the most comprehensive surviving history written by an Ismaili author of the Ismaili imams and the dawat — from the earliest era of Islam, through the rise and fall of the Fatimid Caliphate, to the establishment and flourishing of the Tayyibi dawat in Yemen down to the author’s own age.
The author, Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA), was himself the nineteenth Dai al-Mutlaq. He thus wrote not merely as a scholar but as the living head of the community whose history he was recording — a vantage point that gives the Uyun al-Akhbar a unique standing. For the Dawoodi Bohra community, the work is both a chronicle of sacred lineage and a guardian of memory, preserving accounts of the imams, the Duat Mutlaqeen, and the institutions of the dawat that might otherwise have been lost.
The Author: Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA)
Syedna Idris ibn al-Hasan al-Qurashi (RA) was born around 794 AH / 1392 CE at Shibam in northern Yemen. He belonged to the Banu al-Walid al-Anf family of the Quraysh, a lineage that had supplied the Tayyibi head missionaries (the Duat) in Yemen since the early seventh century AH / thirteenth century CE. His grandfather, Syedna Abdullah Fakhr al-Din (RA), had served as the 16th Dai, and his own father, Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din (RA), also held the rank before him.
Upon the death of his uncle Syedna Ali Shams al-Din (RA), Syedna Idris was raised to the office of Dai al-Mutlaq in 832 AH / 1428 CE, and he led the community — by then spanning Yemen and the growing congregation in India — until his death in 872 AH / 1468 CE (his passing is dated to 10 June 1468). He was succeeded by his son, Syedna al-Hasan Badr al-Din II (RA). Across his life he was at once a political and religious leader in a turbulent Yemen, a theologian, a poet, and the community’s foremost historian.
Scope and Structure: From Creation to the Yemeni Dawat
The Uyun al-Akhbar is organized into seven books (sab’at ajzaa), which together trace a continuous narrative of the Ismaili imamate and dawat. In broad terms the work moves from sacred and pre-Islamic history toward the immediate concerns of the Tayyibi community:
- The earlier books treat the origins of the imamate — the line of the imams descending from Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) through the Ahl Al Bayt — and the period of concealment (satr) before the Fatimid victory.
- The central books are devoted to the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa and Egypt: the proclamation of the dawla, the reigns of the imam-caliphs, and the building of Cairo. The extensive material on Imam al-Muizz li-Din Allah (AS), founder of Cairo, is among the most celebrated portions of the entire work.
- The seventh and final book turns to the later Fatimid imam-caliphs — al-Mustansir, al-Mustali and al-Amir — to the great schism that divided the Ismailis after the death of Imam al-Mustansir, the rupture that followed the events surrounding Imam al-Amir, and above all to the rise of the Tayyibi dawat in Yemen under the Sulayhid queen al-Sayyida al-Hurra (Queen Arwa) and the early Duat.
Because the work narrates the imamate from its beginnings up to the fifteenth century CE, it functions as a connected bridge linking the Fatimid past to the Tayyibi present — the very continuity that defines Bohra History and the Bohra Madhab.
Why the Uyun al-Akhbar Matters as a Primary Source
The exceptional value of the Uyun al-Akhbar rests on the author’s access to sources. As Dai al-Mutlaq, Syedna Idris (RA) had at his disposal the contemporary literary heritage of the Ismailis preserved in Yemen — including a large part of the Fatimid-era manuscripts that had been carried from Egypt to safety in Yemen after the fall of the Fatimid state. He drew on earlier dawat histories and chronicles, many of which no longer survive independently. As a result, his work often preserves the only extant transmission of materials from the Fatimid period.
For this reason modern scholars regard the Uyun al-Akhbar as the single most complete Ismaili-authored history of the community from its origins to the fifteenth century. It is read alongside Syedna Idris’s other major writings — including the theological masterwork Zahr al-Maani (“The Flower of Meanings”), often described as a high point of Tayyibi haqaiq literature, and the historically focused Nuzhat al-Afkar and Rawdat al-Akhbar, which continue the narrative into Tayyibi Yemen. Together these works make Syedna Idris (RA) the principal historian of the dawat.
For the Bohra reader, the Uyun al-Akhbar is more than an archive: it is a record of the unbroken chain of guidance that the community affirms — imam to imam, and imam to Dai during the period of seclusion described in the Dai Al Mutlaq Institution.
Modern Editions and Study
In the modern era the Uyun al-Akhbar has been the subject of a major scholarly publishing effort. A critical Arabic edition of the complete seven books was prepared and published through a collaboration associated with The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) and partners in the field of Arabic manuscript scholarship, with the eminent Egyptian manuscript specialist Ayman Fuad Sayyid among the principal editors, working with scholars including Paul E. Walker and Maurice A. Pomerantz.
Of particular note is the seventh volume, published as The Fatimids and Their Successors in Yaman: The History of an Islamic Community (with the Arabic text and an English summary), which makes accessible the portions on the later Fatimids and the Tayyibi dawat in Yemen. The substantial section on Imam al-Muizz li-Din Allah (AS) has been translated into English by Dr Shainool Jiwa and published as The Founder of Cairo, offering an annotated English rendering of that chapter of the Uyun al-Akhbar.
These editions and translations have brought a work once confined to dawat manuscripts into wider scholarly view, while for the Dawoodi Bohra community the Uyun al-Akhbar remains a revered testament to the history of the imams and the dawat that Syedna Idris Imad al-Din (RA) devoted his life to serving.
Note: This article is under review. Some details of the internal arrangement of the seven books, exact composition dates, and edition particulars vary across sources and should be confirmed against the published critical editions before citation.